Los Angeles closes libraries 2 days a week

I just read this long but well-written article: "City of Airheads: Villaraigosa Dismantles L.A.'s Vaunted Library System." Some of its points ...

• The citizens most impacted by reduction of library services are the poor and middle class, many of whom can't afford their own computers and/or Internet access;
  
• Libraries are 'safe places to be' in areas where the streets--anyplace but inside your own home (and, sadly, even there for some)--are dangerous;
• Libraries are important 'levelers,' providing equal educational opportunity for students who need safe places to work on homework and access to 'Net-equipped computers to do the same.

It's interesting to note that the article doesn't mention the benefit of citizens who can't afford to buy their own books to read being able to borrow them from and use them in the public library. Although this is surely the case--and a significant benefit for a number of library users--evidently this writer doesn't think it's worth pointing out here. Why? Because it's just too obvious to be worth the effort?

Perhaps. But I believe it's because the value of public libraries as institutions that give free access to up-to-date, diverse, well-organized collections of books and other printed materials (and personal, one-to-one assistance in finding same) is much less important than it used to be. That importance is continuing to wane, even while libraries' importance for the other reasons the article points out increases--especially during recession. Yes, the retail print industry is still doing well, but increasingly its sales are for ebooks. (In July '10, Wired reported that Amazon is now selling more ebooks for its Kindle than it is hardcovers, though we must remember booksellers' customers are those who can afford to buy their own books (and/or ereaders).

What do people use books for? Basically, research (education or personal-need) and pleasure reading. Having worked as a high school Teacher Librarian for the last twenty years (and as recently as 2010), I can tell you that--with the exception of some academics at universities--virtually no one uses print collections for research anymore; today's high school students (tomorrow's college and or workers) certainly don't. While I suspect the poorer segment of our society tends to read for pleasure less than the wealthier, the former is far more dependent on public library access for pleasure reading. Why doesn't the article point this out? My guess is because it's just not that important: free access to pleasure reading--especially for the poorer segments of our society--is not a priority.

All of which points to what I see as the future of public libraries--and school libraries, if they survive. Libraries will evolve to supervised spaces which house ('Net-connected, of course) large numbers of no-pay-to-use computers (and/or portable devices) and provide access to not only the "free Web" but library-subscribed databases of pay-access-only periodicals, etc. (That access--paid for by the library but free to authenticated patrons--will continue to be extended to patrons using their own computers anyplace in the world.) Libraries will no longer house collections of physical books; instead they will purchase and manage access to ebooks, available to all patrons on a limited-time-use ("checkout") basis through download to not only a computer but also portable ereaders of all stripes (both those focused primarily on reading text, like today's Kindle, or more multipurpose like today's iPad... though the distinction may disappear). The only circulation of physical objects I imagine to be the checkout and checkin of portable ereaders--or perhaps full-on portable computers--with library-paid 'Net access, maybe for in-library use only or possibly to take home for a few weeks.

What happens to the current prodigious book collections of our public libraries? Some--especially popular fiction of low historical research value and nonfiction rapidly aging to irrelevance--will be sold off to private collectors. Others may go to academic libraries. The rest will be either be housed in "archives"--essentially organized warehouses with small reading areas, still perhaps available by special arrangement to the occasional scholarly public individual who wishes to go there to use them (no checkout allowed) or discarded: covers stripped and paper recycled (currently the fate of most public-school outdated textbooks).

Inevitably, this prediction of the future will turn out to be anywhere from slightly to completely wrong. But, as is becoming a sort of tag-line for me it seems, no matter what happens, "It's gonna be interesting."

...And whither human beings?

My amazing friend (since kindergarten), Victoria Pynchon*, pointed me to a post she added to her blog on July 28th, 2008 which got me thinking--and writing a long-ish Comment in response (Comment posted July 28th 2010... exactly two years later; interesting). What is the purpose--or direction--of us humans as time goes on? Where are we headed? Do we have any choice in the matter?

If you're interested, take a look: "What if This Were Our Sole Purpose?" (<--Her relatively short blog posting; after reading--and viewing the beautiful image of the Earth and Moon from space, scroll down for my Comment.) *I can't resist touting Victoria. One of the most intelligent--and wise--people I've ever known personally, she practiced corporate law and was a successful litigator in L.A. for a number of years (earning big bucks in the process of course). Then she got sick of it and wanted to better help people in more meaningful ways. She quit her job, went back to law school for a second time, earned her Master of Law degree (in law it's backwards from the rest of academia: first you get your Juris Doctor, then you get--maybe--your LL.M.), and is now a mediator and teacher of other mediators as well as insightful and much-respected blogger on mediation topics (i.e. writes extensively and shares it all with the world for free). She's also finished her first book which is just about to be published: A Is for Asshole: The ABCs of Conflict Resolution.

Ebooks: finally gaining traction? Whither libraries?

I've been waiting years for the hardware to get good enough and the ebook format wars to settle down for ebooks to start to really get traction... and I think it's finally beginning to happen. Even some "dead tree edition" book lovers are liking the convenience and portability of the Kindle, nook, iPad, etc.--though they're not about to forsake physical books anytime soon either (like in their lifetimes). On a recent cruise where, at 57 and 60-something my wife and I were the youngsters, I saw a number of Kindles and even an iPad (it had only been available for about a week before departure) in use. I myself have been reading a lot of books lately on my iPod touch (just finished Moby Dick--I'd never read it and figured I ought to). Yes, I prefer more on a page at once but tapping the screen to quickly turn a page, being able to read with one hand in bed in the dark, and toting my "book" around in so small and light a package are all welcome advantages.

For research, in general, printed books are pretty much over. The search capability and ease of access from multiple locations afforded by digital information is just too great for "bound books" to compete. Although there will always be some significant number of esoteric/obscure/old books which won't be digitized (despite Google's admirable best efforts) and which scholars needing them will have to go after in print, most "library"-type research is already done online and that trend will continue to grow.

Personal/pleasure reading? It will be interesting to see. I know plenty of "old people" (in which group I include myself) who love owning books as unique and very special objects and who swear they'll never prefer reading on a screen--no matter how good it is--to the "look, feel, and smell" of a "real" book. These are often people who keep their own collections and reread favorite books regularly (this does not include me). For today's teens and twenty-somethings, I don't think all of this matters as much. For them I think portability, availability, and ease of access will trump the collector's zeal.

One of the biggest obstacles for ebooks has been the twin issues of color/graphics and page (screen) size; this is where I think Apple has nailed it with the iPad. It seems an excellent compromise between screen size and portability, has very good color and resolution (and the horsepower to handle it all with snappy response) and presents a large enough viewing area to make reading newspapers/magazines and highly-formatted text with inline photos/illustrations (even videos with sound) reasonably satisfying. For just text my iPod touch is good enough for me, but for browsing the Web or reading a magazine, forget it: way too much scrolling-and-pinching.

I do think that being able to download ebooks to your device so you can access them without a wireless connection is important for pleasure reading. When WiMax (Sprint's "4G" or whoever else might supercede them in the market) is sufficiently built-out so it's ubiquitous and cheap, then this requirement will fall away, but especially in this economy it may be years before we're there. Wi-Fi in its current state is way too rare (available/open connections), and the wireless carriers' "3G" data connections are too slow and expensive... especially when usage soars (this may be one of the problems plaguing AT&T in the San Francisco area: so many people bought iPhones and loved on-the-go Web browsing, etc. that their infrastructure just couldn't keep up).

For research this isn't much of an issue. In fact, since for research we want to search and access large amounts of disparate information quickly (such as a library's collection--or multiple libraries' collections), nonfiction information of potential research value is better used online. This is why I think libraries--especially academic libraries--will continue to transform from collections of physical materials to online digital collections available to patrons. Take a look at Stanford Ushers in the Age of Bookless Libraries. Heck, if absolutely everything in all of Standford's libraries' collection' were available online (well safeguarded and backed up, of course) to Standford students and faculty, there'd be no compelling reason to keep any of it. Think of the money they'd save in staffing alone. (So are librarians no longer worth their salaries in an all-digital age? That's a whole other topic...)

Public libraries are different, as they give information access--for both pleasure and research--to everyone, regardless of income or socioeconomic level. My local public librarians tell me usage has gone up considerably since the recession hit... and not just people checking out books but people using the 24 library computers as well (no surprise there). If things go as I think they might, I can see public libraries eventually morphing into essentially no-charge "Internet cafes" (well, you will have to pay for coffee and snacks) used primarily by those who can't afford their own hardware or online access subscription fees (or have just had their own device stolen)... and without a physical book in sight.

Never gonna happen? Imagine this: In 3rd grade you're given an iPad-like device to use for accessing, interacting with, and creating information in school. All your "textbooks" (if such large, specially-designed info. packets are even still used) and all "library books" are accessed through this device ("check out" a library book and when it's due that copy is instantly available to another student/faculty member and no longer to you... no overdue or lost book fines ever--in fact, no lost books!) Middle school, high school, and college: ditto (though in college of course you still have to pay for the "textbooks"--some things will probably never change). By the time you're through with school and out on your own, how much do you think you'll care about going after a physical, "dead tree edition" of that new (or even not-so-new) book you've heard about and want to read? And then what are you going to do with the thing when you're done reading it? What are you, one of those weird old people who holes up in a house full of cats and dusty bookshelves lining every wall?

Follett Library Books--the 800-lb. gorilla of the school library book vendor world--has over 51,000 titles available in ebook format for libraries to purchase and add to their collections. They work much as described above--except that, for now at least, you can only read them on the computer to which you downloaded them, not your portable "ERD" (ebook reading device... my own term). If the iPad, Kindle, nook, etc. really gain market dominance--or if they'll all agree to play nice and support a single downloading protocol and ecosystem that library book vendors like Follett can become a part of, that restriction may no longer apply.

The San Diego Unified School District, 7th(?) largest urban school district in the country, has embarked upon a 5-year plan ("i-21") to provide netbooks to every student in grades three through twelve that they take home with them (important), along with campuswide broadband wireless at every campus.

The road ahead is full of IEDs which could blow up my little ebook vision. But never gonna happen? Maybe. At any rate, it's gonna be interesting.